Whistling noise when excelerating ..

[Shoeshine]

Hello . I have a ford fusion 2 2004 (petrol)  .. its my first car . 50.000 miles . Full service history and all Mot certificate.  Just had it serviced.  New mot ( advisories on broake pipes greased ) .. I love the car . My grandfather bought it me so I could take my test and help with their care .. my only issue with it is when I get in it at times I get a high pitched whistle when excelerating .. it gets very annoying hotting 3000 revs . But then I will get in it the day after and no whistle? I want to to know what it is because I'd like to keep it in the condition it was bought for me ( immaculate due to an old chap having it from new and he used to only use it to go to play golf once a week ) .. I am in no way mechanical but I have a little time left on the warranty . Its going in 9n the 6 Jan but I'd like an idea of where to point so I don't get fobbed off till the warranty ends . Any advice would be really appreciated.  

[fullwavebridge]

Could be a number of causes, is it a whistling or whining ?

Are you sure it is not wind hitting the car in a certain place at above a certain speed ?

If you are sure it is coming from the engine bay then it could be a bad hose seal on air intake  area, air filter cover not tightened down correctly, fusions do have a hose that wears n splits (i think it is under the battery tray, could be related to something else i read once) ? i haven't had that myself but have heard of the issue.

Check all hoses on air intake side, turbo etc, if you think it's not in engine bay then check body trim, window seals etc.

difficult to diagnose from the interweb.

[Shoeshine]

Thank you for your reply . Its a whistle as revs are increased not a whine ..Definitely coming from the engine and not external . I didn't think petrol engines had a turbo ? Sorry I'm no mechanic.. I'm hoping just to give the mechanic a list to check . Much appreciate your help 👍🏼

[Shoeshine]

It's not every time I drive it . It seems to do it one day and then the next time it's gone , then I'll get in it and its whistling again 🤷‍♂️ .. its very high pitched.. gives me a headache lol 

[TomsFocus]

Most modern petrol engines have a turbo, but none of the petrols in the Fusion did.

The fact that it's intermittent will make it hard to trace - you can almost be guaranteed it won't do it when the garage look at it!

It probably is an air leak somewhere around the intake, not likely to be difficult or expensive to fix.  If you can pin down the location a bit more that could help, though if it doesn't do it while stationary that could be difficult!

[billyboy]

If it's loud enough to give you an headache it could be a slipping power steering belt especially if it's worse when the car is cold.. You say it's not all the time , is it worse when you turn the steering wheel onto full lock.

[Shoeshine]

21 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Most modern petrol engines have a turbo, but none of the petrols in the Fusion did.

The fact that it's intermittent will make it hard to trace - you can almost be guaranteed it won't do it when the garage look at it!

It probably is an air leak somewhere around the intake, not likely to be difficult or expensive to fix.  If you can pin down the location a bit more that could help, though if it doesn't do it while stationary that could be difficult!

Yes this is my problem 😒 Trying to locate it is becoming a right pain ! 

[Shoeshine]

21 hours ago, billyboy said:

If it's loud enough to give you an headache it could be a slipping power steering belt especially if it's worse when the car is cold.. You say it's not all the time , is it worse when you turn the steering wheel onto full lock.

This seems more likely to me although I have absolutely no knowledge of engine's.  The power steering seems most likely.  I did have a few issues with the engine loosing power and making the whistling noise more frequently but the mechanic did replace the 2 belts in the engine when it had its full service 🤷‍♂️ the engine seems to struggle excelerating when the whistling starts if that helps ? Thanks for your help lads 👍🏼

[fullwavebridge]

Back to the garage in that case.

[Oggy_Oggy]

Could be the alternator on its way out. They can make and increasingly high pitch noise due to bad bearings etc. Have someone slowly increase the engine RPM whilst listening around the engine bay.

Or better get a battery tester or use a multimeter to test the voltage output from the alternator. It shouldn't go much higher than 14ish V

As I recently found out the alternator could fail and cause an over voltage.

If you don't already get yourself and OBD tool. You can get cheap bluetooth ones on eBay/ amazon for £10 and can get loads of free apps for your phone. They will save you money in the long run.